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POLYCAST SPECIAL ON `CIVILIZATION IV: WAR OF TWO CITIES`
(8 April 2008, 19:19 | Civ4 | 4 comments) 
Available on some mobile phone carriers` models already and more of both into the future, Civilization IV: War of Two Cities based on the Civ franchise for the PC has been developed by Floodgate Entertainment and published by Oasys Mobile. As the name implies, it`s you as the player versus an opponent -- one city matched against theirs. Defend and nurture your city as your neighbour does the same, each coveting the prize of the other`s land. Little has been known about this title to date, and that is now changing.
Last month Apolyton Civilization Site (ACS) Chief Owner/Administrator Daniel "DanQ" Quick and staff member Tony "GarretSidzaka" Kiehl spoke with representatives from both developer and publisher about CivIV: WoTC on topics including its technologies, civilizations and -- of course -- units. Entitled "Focus: Civilization IV: War of Two Cities", it is being released as a special edition of PolyCast (PC), an official podcast of ACS. Quick is one of PC`s regular co-hosts and Kiehl a regular on its sibling show ModCast. The four interviewees are made up of two representatives from both Floodgate and Oasys: Founder and Creative Director Paul Neurath and Lead Designer Scott Kimball, and Vice President of Product Development Rick Raymer and Producer Jason Rice, respectively.
Total runtime is 52m17s. PolyCast is also the collective banner for both series. ACS is the only known community to produce its own Civilization podcasts. - DanQ
`WAR OF TWO CITIES` QUESTIONS FOR DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER
(3 March 2008, 19:15 | Civ4 | 2 comments) 
Coming soon to mobile phones near and not-so-near you is Civilization IV: War of Two Cities, based on the Civ franchise for the PC. As the name implies, it`s you as the player versus an opponent -- one city matched against theirs. Defend and nuture your city as your neighbour does the same, each coveting the prize of the other`s land. Little is known about this title to date, and now is a first and ideal chance to bring your questions directly to the source.
Led by Apolyton Civilization Site (ACS) Chief Owner/Administrator and regular PolyCast (PC) co-host Daniel "DanQ" Quick, two representatives from developer Floodgate Entertainment one from publisher Oasys Mobile Inc. will be available to answer questions from around the community about CivIV: WoTC. The feature will be released under the banner of PC, the official podcasts of ACS. Floodgate`s Paul Neurath is its Founder and Creative Director; Matthew Bellows oversees the company`s operations, sales and marketing. Oasys` Rick Raymer is their Vice President of Product Development.
You can either post your question(s) in this thread or leave a voicemail by calling or VoIPing your message. There are no limits on the number of questions you can ask, but note that not all may be asked or make it into the final release of this special. Where identities are verifiable and service available, those whose questions are used in this episode will receive a three-month subscription to "PLUS!", ACS` optional subscription service. The deadline for submitting questions is this Friday, March 7th, at 11:59PM EST.
This special is anticipated be both recorded and released sometime this month. - DanQ
2 SID MEIER INTERVIEWS
(29 February 2008, 19:06 | Civ4) On February 20th, in the Game Developers Convention `08, Sid Meier talks about Civilization, Portal, and Dinosaurs.
Meier also admits that he did not expect Civ to become so addicting, "I actually did not really expect the game to be as addictive as it was," said Meier. "Every game had its fans but this kind of universal addictiveness.. was scary."
FULL STORY
Also on February 20th, Game|Life asked Meier two questions, one about his game`s expectations and another about if he ever get nervous.
Here is Sid`s answer to the question about his games. Meier: "I think my name on the game box has come to mean that people can expect a certain type of game experience when they buy one of our games. Our games are known for addictive, fun gameplay delivered in exciting environments that offer players lots of choices and interesting decisions to make.
FULL STORY
Thanks to shacknews for the first news tip and Game|Life for the 2nd. - AAHZ
SOREN: MAKING OF CIV4
(26 February 2008, 21:46 | Civ4 | 5 comments) Gaming site Rock Paper Shotgun posted a two part interview with Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson this past week. In part 2 of the interview, they discuss the making of Civilization IV, and the priorities and issues Soren and his team considered while developing the game.
Soren on what wasn`t going into Civ4: [T]here were a lot of gameplay mechanics that it was clear to me weren’t adding any fun to the game and were definitely tripping newcomers, making the game more difficult to get into.
Soren on the decision to go 3D: We wanted it to be in 3D, with a living, breathing world – the term we always used internally. We wanted to see what we could do with 3D.
Soren on 3D versus 2D: [S]ometimes I wonder what it would’ve be like if we had just stayed on the 2D train for 4. It’s weird. The gameplay could be the exact same. There’s no point where the graphics changed the way we would have written the game rules – it’s still a board game inside your computers. With 2D, we wouldn’t have had the same performance issues and we’d have been able to prototype the game perhaps even faster than we did – there’s a lot of stuff we were waiting for because we were developing this 3D strategy engine as we were going along.
Soren on one of the inspirations for Civ4 MP: Age of Kings really showed me how good a strategy game could be if they took the time to balance it well. They really thought long and hard how everything stuck together. You really had multiple ways to play the game, which usually manifested itself in you being a cavalry guy or a ranged guy or a melee guy or focusing on a specific unit. Which is just cool.
Soren on how mods make him feel: it feels good we’re empowering their creativity. If they weren’t being creative with Civ 4, I’m sure there’s something else they’d do, but it’s neat to see they chose our format over all the other options they had for making cool and interesting stuff.
For more, see the full article or discuss the article on the related thread.
Thanks to JulianD for the tip. - snoopy369
JOIN THE BTS TEAM DEMOCRACY GAME!
(26 January 2008, 16:34 | Civ4 | 9 comments) The initial discussions for a new Team Democracy Game have started in our forums, so if you`re interested in playing a DG, join in now to be involved from the start. This game will be a Pitboss-based Team Democracy Game for Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword and the game is planned to start shortly after the next patch for BtS is released. In case you`re new to Democracy Games, a FAQ is provided by Rob Worham:
A Team Democracy Game (Demo game or DG) is a game played by a large community of players who split up into a number of teams, each team becoming one civilization. Each team gets to discuss their teams strategy in their own private forum. Quite how they operate within their private forum is entirely up to them, but as a general guideline, some form of discussion is held (via posting and/or `live chats`) to decide upon the best course of action for their civilization. Once they have decided upon a course of action, one member of their team physically plays the turn.
You can read the rest of the FAQ, sign up for the game and join in on the discussions for the game setup (rules, teams, settings, etc) in the newly created BtS Democracy Game forum. - Locutus
FIRAXIS MODDING CONTEST
(19 December 2007, 21:23 | Civ4 | 22 comments) Firaxis Games`s Dennis Shirk today announced in our forums a modding contest for Civilization IV and its expansion packs. You can enter to win one of five Dell XPS computers: four notebooks and a laptop.
The holidays are upon us and we’re certain many of you are wondering what to do while sitting in the comfort of your homes, staying as far away from the snow and ice as possible (Californians excluded). Sure, you could spend time with family, play with the kids, or figure out how to turn on your squeaky clean new iPod. But, we have a better idea. Why not show the world what you can do to customize the greatest strategy game ever made?
Unfortunately this contest is for U.S. residents only, so don`t get overly excited if you`re one of those 6.5 billion other people. If you are in the U.S. however, you can enter for one of the following categories:
- Best In-Game Asset (art, including units, buildings and/or wonders)
- Best World-Builder Scenario (just a single .wbs file)
- Best Map Script (just a single .py file)
- Best Educational Mod (only educators and schools can submit entries for this one)
Keep in mind that prizes are awarded to individuals only, so if you`re in a team you`ll have to duke it out amongst yourself who gets that shiny new computer. This contest runs from December 23, 2007 to February 18, 2008 so you have some time to perfect your creations. Full rules and restrictions can be found on the Firaxis website, where you can also find the submission form to enter your creations. Good luck! - Locutus
